Annual American Composers Update
Jane Ellen
Jane Ellen** is working as a freelance composer, lecturer,
and music instructor in Albuquerque, NM. A frequent guest
of Marty Ronish on nationally distributed radio programs
from Sweet Bird Classics, Inc., she continues to lecture
widely on music appreciation and religious studies topics.
Her latest commission is for an anthem for New Life Presbyterian
Church, in Albuquerque. Recently, Jane composed the theme
for the Internet radio talk show
Sonic Soaps, and
was commissioned to write the theme for the new children's
educational radio program
Boombox Classics. Receiving
her 11th consecutive award from ASCAP in June, Ellen has
served this year as a judge for local youth composition
and performance competitions. She received the state commission
for New Mexico from the MTNA Foundation for a three-movement
piano work entitled
Images of Rome, which will
be competing against commissioned works from other states
at a competition in Washington, D.C. She may be reached
at
jane@janeellen.com.
Premieres
Holy Infant (text by poet Ann Cragg), a Christmas
anthem for SATB choir, commissioned by First United Methodist
Church in Albuquerque, received its premiere Dec. 24,
1999, with the church's Chancel Choir under the direction
of Daniel Cummings. On June 18, 2000, Ellen introduced
Chiara, for piano, at Marble Avenue Bible Church
in Albuquerque, and performed it again at the JEMS Fall
Piano Studio Recital on Oct. 7, 2000. At the State Convention
of the New Mexico MTNA Branch, the Professional Music
Teachers of New Mexico,
Images of Rome was presented
by pianist Susan Landers, Nov. 10, 2000. On Oct. 22, 2000
at a special Mass held by Our Lady of the Annunciation
Parish in Albuquerque, celebrated by Archbishop Michael
Sheehan, Barbara Guenther directed the Annunciation Parish
Choir and the African-American Gospel Choir of Albuquerque
in the first performance in the United States of
Lead
Us to Christ Jesus, an anthem for choir, keyboard
and African percussion, commissioned by the Canossian
Daughters of Charity, F.d.C.C. on the occasion of the
canonization of Mother Josephine Bakhita, Oct. 1, 2000
in Rome, Italy.
Performances
The mass chosen for the above-mentioned service was Ellen's
Mass of the Faithful. Piano works
Memories of
Erin and
Green Hills of Eire, performed by
Jane Viemeister at the annual SAI Albuquerque Alumnae
Chapter American Music Month Concert, Feb. 15, 2000, were
broadcast later on a Sweet Bird Classics radio program,
hosted by Ronish, entitled
The Celtic Connexion.
At the annual New Mexico Women Composers' Guild Concert,
Mar. 19, 2000 in Robertson's Recital Hall, in Albuquerque,
Viemeister played
Spirits of Cornwall, a three-movement
suite for piano.
Phantom Lost (text by Cragg) and
You And I, from
Three Songs for Mezzo-Soprano,
were sung by soprano Susan Corley, accompanied by pianist
Matalie Wham, in a recital at St. Michael and All Angels
Episcopal Church, Aug. 26, 2000.
Further Information
